The present invention relates generally to vehicle partition apparatus and in particular to a pivoted automobile partition which is pivotally mounted in a position adjacent to the front seat backrest in order to fill the space between the top of such backrest and the roof of the automobile when the partition is in its raised position. The automobile partition apparatus is pivotally mounted to be automatically moved from a lowered position to raised position by bias spring means, including at least one coil spring which may be adjusted to change the bias force supplied by such spring means. Such an automobile partition apparatus is especially useful in police cars, taxicabs and other passenger vehicles to separate rear seat passengers from the driver and other front seat occupants.
It has been previously proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,164 of Setina, issued May 5, 1970, and a corresponding U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE27,942 of Setina, issued Mar. 19, 1974, to provide an automobile partition which is pivoted on a guard plate attached between two roll bar legs adjacent to the top of the front seat backrest. However, spiral shaped leaf springs, sometimes referred to as clock springs, were employed as the bias springs for pivoting the partition from its lowered position to its raised position. Such clock spring bias means have the disadvantage that there is no way to adjust the pivoting force of such clock springs. Also, the clock springs are of relatively large diameter so that such springs are not concealed or enclosed to prevent tampering and injury to rear seat passengers. Thus, in the above mentioned patents, there was no adjustable bias spring means for pivoting the partition. As a result, when the spring aged through use, the pivoting force reduced until eventually it was too weak to raise the partition into the raised locked position, thereby necessitating replacement of the clock spring. To delay this spring replacement, the clock spring was sometimes initially set at such a strong force that the rapid pivoting of the partition upward into its raised position provided a substantial hazard to the rear seat passengers if they were struck by such pivoted partition. These problems have been overcome in the pivoted partition of the present invention by providing an adjustable spring bias means, including a coiled spring with multiple turn coils spaced longitudinally along the axis of the spring and a simple adjustment means for adjusting the bias of the spring before or after the partition is installed. This adjustment means operates merely by turning the pivot shaft to which one end of the spring is connected to the proper spring bias position and locking such shaft in the adjusted position by means of lock nuts. In addition, such coil spring is of relatively small diameter so that it is completely concealed within a tubular housing mounted on the back of the guard plate to which the partition is pivotally mounted. This prevents injury to the rear seat passenger and also prevents a passenger from tampering with the spring such as when such passenger is a prisoner seeking to escape from the automobile.